MANAGUA, Nicaragua, October 17, 2021 - Nicaragua
defeated Panama 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-20) in the
closing game of the first day of the XXI Central
American Senior Women's Volleyball Cup.
The Nicaraguans won the first set comfortably,
but in the next two they had to battle to
overcome an Panama´s advantage of more than 5
points. In the second set, Nicaragua took the
lead at the close (15-14) thanks to the good
service of setter Lolette Rodríguez and good
blocking by Hellen Traña.
In the third set, Panama also took the lead
(16-13), but Nicaragua came back with the
actions of Dalia Conto and Valeska Hernández in
the attacks.
Josafat Díaz with 11 points was the best for the
locals, and with 10 were Dalia Conto and Hellen
Traña. For Panama, the best was María Gallimore
with 10 and 7 from Haslyn Cuero. Nicaragua led
the attack 36-22, blocking 7-3 and the service
went to Panama 5-4, with 28 errors from Panama
to 17 from Nicaragua.
Josafat Díaz, Nicaragua´s best scorer: “I
dedicate this victory to my grandmother, she
passed away a month ago and well this victory is
for her. Thank God because we won this game, it
was difficult because we came from behind, we
showed that we can recover, we got discouraged
at times because the reception wasnt good, but
then we managed to improve on that”.
René Quintana, Nicaragua´s coach: “All teams
have had some problem with the wind on the
court, especially with the reception, which
affected us a lot at the start of the teams.
Panama was a great rival, but the girls reached
maturity, settled on the field and we managed to
come back and finish with quite a difference”.
Johana Arroyo, Panama´s captain: “I congratulate
the Nicaraguan team who stayed constant, despite
the fact that the last two sets we had a clear
advantage and they came back. Our team had the
guts to win, but we lacked the coupling as a
team. We must assess that it is the first game,
with the home team that is strong, but we have a
lot of expectations with the team we have".
Eliot Clarke, coach of Panama: “Getting used to
the gym here is difficult, but we looked good at
the beginning, with grit and we relaxed at the
end. We had problems with the receipt and poor
location in the lock, that's what we need to
improve. Tomorrow we are going to give it more
enthusiasm ”.
Panama will face Guatemala this Monday at 7:00
p.m., while Nicaragua has its day off. |